Both military and commercial vehicles commonly include radar systems for identifying fixed and moving objects, terrain and weather, among other things. Such vehicles can include aircraft, land vehicles, ships or other vehicles having radar systems. Users of military and commercial vehicles often need to communicate information with other such users or various base stations. Conventional communication systems for such vehicles often allow for only low bandwidth communications using limited radio frequency (RF) power. In general, such limited communication systems are separate and independent systems from the radar systems.
The radar systems in such vehicles generally include active electronically scanned arrays (AESA) or active phased array radar systems which can identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. Active array radar systems are electrically steerable. Thus, unlike mechanical arrays, active arrays are capable of steering electromagnetic waves used for radar without physical movement. Such electronically steered antennas include individually electronically controlled steering devices behind each antenna element. Each steering device can manipulate the time delay or phase of the signal passing through it. With a beam steering computer controlling each element, the beam direction and shape can be digitally controlled within a relatively short time period.
Users of military and commercial vehicles today need to send and receive information about terrain, weather, threats and targets. Such information can be stored in digital files such as image files, video files or real-time data files, which are often large in size. This information is often time sensitive and may therefore need to be communicated very rapidly. Systems capable of enabling the communication of large data files over long distances for users of such vehicles have been proposed. However, such communication systems typically require sophisticated and bulky antennas which introduce interference with other on-board antenna systems. Also, such proposed systems can require a number of additional electronic components. Therefore, a system enabling high speed communication of large data files over long distances for commercial and military vehicles is needed.